About Victoria Electricity

Victoria Electricity is a Melbourne based energy retailer dedicated to providing their customers with value for money and the best level of service. Victoria Electricity has established a Hardship Team within the Compliance and Regulatory Affairs department which actively seeks to identify and assist hardship customers within Victoria Electricity’s customer base. Victoria Electricity has implemented a SustainAssist home energy audit program to assist their hardship customers to save energy and reduce their energy bills.

Victoria Electricity needs

Victoria Electricity wanted to show leadership in fulfilling their responsibilities to hardship customers and in compliance with their ‘Hardship Customer Policy’.
The Hardship Team needed to provide these customers with real benefits, including energy savings and a consequent reduction in bills, and improved comfort and utility.

Victoria Electricity was looking to partner with a company experienced in sourcing and managing the installation of energy efficient products and encouraging behaviour change. Victoria Electricity needed this partner to provide hardship customers with meaningful information.

ecovantage solution

ecovantage tailored the ‘SustainAssist’ program for Victoria Electricity hardship customers, and has implemented and delivered the program since May 2008.

The tailored SustainAssist program involves a house visit to the customer, the provision and installation of a ‘show bag’ full of energy saving products. The products and installation are provided to the hardship customer at no cost. Products included in the show bag include energy efficient lighting, draught seals, shower timers, a thermometer, a ‘dot it’ LED light, and energy saving information. These products have been selected by ecovantage to not only initiate behavioural change but to broaden the scope and appeal of doing so.

As part of the SustainAssist program, customers may also be directed toward and assisted with government grant applications to enable broken or faulty appliances to be replaced.

Victoria Electricity and ecovantage – Measurable Results

ecovantage reports regularly to Victoria Electricity on variables such as number of audits booked and/or completed and an analysis of energy saving changes that customers have made. The aggregated data provides insightful information regarding the customer’s energy usage, and allows ecovantage to provide a flexible SustainAssist program. Data collected by ecovantage is also used by Victoria Electricity for compliance reporting to the Victorian state government.